Just before the new shut down/confinement in France (end of October), a delegation from Lorient, stakeholders in the POTEnT project, was able to go and study many good practices in terms of energy reappropriation in the Rhône-Alpes Region (East of France).
The challenge of this trip was high. Lorient and its agglomeration have had brand new elected officials since June 2020. A new political programme is therefore in place for the energy transition, that was only waiting to be fed, embellished with details and new inspirations.
The objective was to draw inspiration from and adopt the good practices of the metropolises of Lyon and Grenoble. The interest of the trip was also to reinforce a common culture between the participants and an ability to work together, which is essential to successfully complete the transitions that await us.
7 participants were there for 3 days of travel and 14 meetings: elected representatives and directors of the city of Lorient, Lorient Agglomeration and ALOEN, and a representative of the Region of Brittany (the Managing Authority for ALOEN in the POTEnT project).
Here are some highlights of the most important results ALOEN got from the study visit:
a) The discovery of numerous territorial tools for local authorities:
· a Local Public Company that supports local authorities in the energy renovation of their buildings;
· an Investment Fund which intervenes in Renewable Energy projects managed by local actors;
· a local energy agency that modifies its status to better respond to the community's challenges.
And many others...
b ) Greater integration of environmental constraints, particularly energy ones, in Urban Planning projects on the scale of a part of a city, a district and a building.
c) Exchanges on successful projects involving the pooling of skills via employers' groups.
These new good practices studied will integrate the register shared between the POTEnT partners and can therefore be studied also by the other POTEnT partners
